Excerpts
from Joanna Sampson's digital book
|
HIGH, WILD AND HANDSOME
The Story of Colorado's Beautiful South Boulder Creek and Eldorado Canyon

Copyright 2000. All rights reserved.
The following excerpts used by permission from the author. To request
permission to use any of the materials from his book, contact
the author directly.

Photo of Eldorado Canyon on South Boulder Creek by
Muriel Sibell Wolle is copyright Denver Public Library and used
by permission.

Excerpts from Chapter 8Denver Water

The South Boulder Creek drainage was selected as the
site for construction of one of the most impressive water systems
built in the state of Colorado. By the early 1870's engineers were
acutely aware of the need to find more water sources for the city
of Denver. Theoretically, if a tunnel was bored under the Continental
Divide through James Peak, Western Slope water could be transported
to the Eastern Slope. The South Boulder Creek drainage was selected
as the logical link between mountains and city for the execution
of this complex water system.

Whether riding on the wooden seat of a covered wagon or lounging
on the plush seat of a late model automobile, the first sight of
the Rocky Mountains from the eastern plains of Colorado is a classic
view.

The famous panorama of snow-capped mountains soaring above
miles of dry-land prairie also tells an accurate story of water in Colorado.
Those mountains, glistening white against the sky, store huge supplies
of water in their snow pack. Brown plains in the foreground go thirsty
without irrigation. In a semi-arid state that receives only an average
of 15.5 inches annual precipitation, the mountains provide almost all
the water for parched prairies and water-guzzling cities.

Denver pioneers recognized the need for adequate water
supplies because they soon realized that growth of the city and the success
of agriculture on the plains depended on a reliable water source.

In 1870 the Denver City Water Company was formed to provide a steady,
year-round water supply for its customers.

Construction
of the Moffat Tunnel from the Denver Public Library's Western History
Collection. Two bores were made through the Continental Divide--
one for trains and one to bring water from the Western Slope watersheds
near Winter Park. See BASIN Gallery
for more images of South Boulder Creek.

South Boulder Creek was then targeted as the drainage to be used for
transporting Western Slope water to the Eastern Slope at the same time
the Moffat Tunnel was built.

Moffat Tunnel plans for the railroad included a water tunnel parallel
to the main bore.

Colorado's mountain snow pack melts quickly in the spring. This huge
seasonal flood requires storage if it is to be used for year-round consumption.
The Diversion Dam was built on South Boulder Creek several miles above
Eldorado Springs. This dam was one of the largest in the state at the
time of its construction. Excavation for the Diversion Dam was begun on
August 3, 1935.

The rest of the water project was well described by Ralph Radetsky,
reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera on January 5, 1936: "There
is still, however, plenty to do east of the dam. You've got to build conduits,
a series of five tunnels, six siphons and six flumes, to take water from
the dam to Ralston Creek. Then on Ralston Creek you've got to build a
huge reservoir dam."

When use of the water from the Moffat Pioneer Bore began, the raw water
from the Western Slope was considered the finest quality water ever made
available for use by Denver.

Gross Reservoir holds over 40,000 acre feet of water and as Boulder
Daily Camera reporter Barbara Kossler noted in 1960, "When the water
cascades in a frothy meringue over the 160 feet of spillway, it is more
than impressive, practical, utilitarian...it is beautiful."

The current license for the Gross Reservoir project expired May 1, 2000.

Projected life for Gross Dam is estimated at 1000 years. Major threats
to its longevity are: a) an earthquake along the Golden fault (which is
not an active fault at the present time), b) a huge "Noah" type flood
that could seep under the dam and tip it over, c) neglect, d) a terrorist
attack. Even though none of the above failures or disasters is anticipated,
Denver Water, Boulder County Emergency Management along with Boulder Sheriff
Emergency Services and the Eldorado Springs-Marshall Fire Department have
emergency plans and warning systems in place in case the integrity of
the dam is ever threatened.

Excerpts from Chapter Four, Eldorado Springs Resort

In 1938 a major flood hit the community. Heavy rains and hail storms
battered the state during August causing widespread damage and evacuation
of homes on the Front Range. At 7 p.m. on September 2, a wall of water
hit Eldorado Canyon and raged all night. Houses, the pavilion, bath house,
dance hall and all roads and bridges were washed out. Residents fled to
high ground on either side of the creek and spent a wet, terrifying night
in the open.

E.E. Sullivan and R.A. Stokely, members of the Matt Betton orchestra
from the University of Kansas, had been playing at the resort for five
weeks prior to the flood.

"The lights went out about 7 o'clock", Stokely told a reporter the next
day, "and soon after that we heard the crashing of the Arcade. We rushed
to the dance hall and managed to save two instruments though warned against
going into the building."

The orchestra lost a library of music valued at $1000 along with all
the instruments except the two saxophones they retrieved the night before.

Tim Shanahan, whose family homesteaded some of the first land in Boulder
County, remembers, "the morning after the flood, musical instruments and
slot machines were scattered all along the fields east of our ranch."

The South Boulder Creek flood plain includes much of the land east of
the Shanahan ranch that lies directly south of the Boulder city limits
on Highway 93. Most of the present University of Colorado-owned "Flatiron"
property is flood plain. That land was all under water during the flood
in 1938.

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